


4. Progression

by veryloudfish



Series: River Ward made me write fanfic [4]
Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Cyberpunk 2077 Spoilers, Dom/sub Undertones, F/M, Fluff and Smut, River's PI work, Smut, can't stop won't stop, extended ending, lots of plot and explaining at first but don't worry i'll never write river without sexy time, my canon post nomad ending, touching on some dark and heavy themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:20:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28837680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veryloudfish/pseuds/veryloudfish
Summary: Extended ending, three months after 3. Reclamation. V takes Randy for those drinks and a story like she promised.
Relationships: Female V/River Ward, V/River Ward
Series: River Ward made me write fanfic [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105454
Comments: 28
Kudos: 74





	4. Progression

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MaeveElemora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaeveElemora/gifts).



> More River fic! You guys are the best. <3

“I can’t believe it took three months for you to make good on your promise,” Randy said, the words coming out slightly slurred considering the eight empty beer bottles on our bar table. “But that is one fucking crazy ride, V.”

Randy fished a few peanuts out of the bowl between us while I nursed my last drink. Truth was, it had been hard to start the story I’d promised him, the entire truth, but a few beers loosened things up and out it came. It would always be there, everything with finding the relic and what followed, but revisiting it would never be easy.

“Yeah, well, I always make good on my word.”

Randy laughed. “Yeah, I know, I know. But damn. Damn, _Johnny fucking Silverhand_?”

“Johnny fucking Silverhand,” I said with a toast to the air, to wherever and whatever my late friend was as much as his memory. I killed the beer and set the bottle on the table, making the rest wobble.

I briefly wondered how much shit I was going to be in when we wandered back home drunk as fuck. Was okay, we only had to walk like two blocks and I’d watch out for him. After all, he was officially my nephew now – not that I wouldn’t have done the same before.

But it probably meant I was going to be in even more shit, but hey. Randy had been through hell and back, same as me. I think hearing my story, seeing me sitting across from him now genuinely happy to be alive, was doing him some sort of good. At least I hoped it was. 

“How’s therapy going?” I asked, and was immediately rewarded with an eye roll so intense I thought his ass might fall off the stool. “Wow, really? I thought I was the cool aunt – also your only aunt – and maybe above the kind of sass you throw at your mother.”

“Nope Auntie V, if anything you’ll get more.” He laughed a bit but then calmed, his expression conflicted. “Especially if you start coddling me now that you’re a Ward clan member.”

I traced my newest tattoo; River’s name around the ring finger on my left hand, thinking of the match which read Valerie on his skin. We both agreed ink was better than some piece of metal which could be lost or broken, neither of which we’d allow.

“Not coddling, just checking in. Dude, I just fucking told you the mess that is my life. The least you can do is return the favor. Besides, this way if they ask me what we talked about tonight I can say some preem shit and maybe they’ll leave you alone for a few minutes.” 

We stared at each other, then said, “Yeah right,” in unison. 

I giggled out a snort first, then he was belly laughing, and both were in tears by the time we got ourselves under control.

I wiped my cheeks. “I just care, kid, same as them. That’s all.”

He flicked a peanut at me. “It’s going good and I also kinda hate it. But it works. Let’s me scream with direction, let’s me scream at someone else besides my mom and that dead fucker.” 

Harris had died a few weeks back, without ever waking up. I think everyone was having trouble processing how exactly to feel about it, myself included.

“But,” Randy said as he sucked in a deep breath, “I’m finding my way, you know. And…well…” Then he squinted at me like he had something to add, leaning on the table with both elbows and knocking a bottle over. When it rolled off the table I caught it with my foot, which got me another eye roll. “You’re such a fucking show off.”

“Yup.” I kicked the bottle up and caught it, adding it back to the group. He seemed to lose his train of thought, but the feeling he was about to confide in me sobered me up a notch. “Whatcha thinking?”

He fidgeted for a minute. I could see him drifting; I’d been there before, albeit for different reasons.

I reached out and caught his hand before he retreated further. “I am too drunk to guess and you’re too drunk to beat around the bush, so shoot.”

“The therapist said it would be good to find something to put all my anxious energy into, and I think I finally decided what I want to do.”

“Preem.” I gave his hand a slap. Maybe he’d get back into music. I could probably rope in Kerry for some lessons, or just to make Randy shit is pants over meeting him – which I had been holding off on for his birthday next summer. 

“I want to run PI with you and River.”

Suddenly I needed another beer, my healthy buzz blinking out. I must have showed more surprise than I intended, because he leaned back and crossed his arms. 

“Seriously? I figured if anyone would be on board, it would be you. Fuck…never mind.”

“Hey, hey, who says I’m not onboard? Just wasn’t what I was expecting is all.” I tried to decided who was going to kill me first and with more enthusiasm, Joss or River. Decided on Joss, but still said, “What exactly did you have in mind?”

“Support. I know they’d never want me in the field, and I’m honestly not sure I’d want to be anyway. Maybe I could talk to some of the victims we help, though? The survivors. You know…from experience.” He shuddered a bit, but kept talking, faster now. “And River is shit at netrunning, you know that. I know you’re pretty damn good, but I also know you’re still an edgerunner. I’m guessing you can’t answer River’s calls every second of every day.”

“His cases are always my priority, Randy. Always. I stayed in my biz to help with his.” When Randy smirked, I held up my hands in surrender. “Okay, yes, fine. I also still very much enjoy what I do. But I’m serious. I drop everything if River calls me.”

“Oh, I know.” Randy made an exaggerated gagging motion, so I threw the entire bowl of peanuts at him. He laughed, swatting the crumbs off his shirt. “My skills are pretty basic, but I can at least run his net site for now, help with intake and surveillance. I’m saving up for new quick hacks, been stashing all the eddies from my job at the mechanic. I figured you could, you know, maybe show me some new tricks?”

“What’s your mom and uncle think about the idea?”

He drooped a bit in his seat. “I’m asking you first. Figured you can help me talk them into saying yes.”

Oh _fuuuuuuuuuck_. 

Joss and River were both going to kill me, probably at the same time, probably as a coordinated strike team effort.

I flagged down the bar tender. “Two more.”

***

I wobbled out from Randy’s trailer. The kid was passed out cold, snoring, the whole nine. 

“Traitor,” I muttered as I shut the door behind me. 

Joss’s trailer was dark, meant the other kids were asleep, and it was a damn good thing both her and River were in our new trailer across the dirt path when we got back from the bar, because I could still hear them yelling.

Randy, my brilliant nephew choom, decided on the walk home – _without telling me_ – the best way to pitch his new intentions of being a PI was to: Kick the door open, saunter in drunk as fuck, tell his uncle and mother they couldn’t stop him because he was a grown ass man now, then promptly add Auntie V said it was a good idea and since I was officially part of the family it counted. I think he actually said ‘no takie-backies’ before he ran back outside to puke over the railing. 

I’d shrugged at them, because what the fuck, Randy, really? I hadn’t planned to be murdered tonight. I’d expected to have a few days before they found out I was encouraging him to come up with some arguments in his favor. So I excused myself. Very quickly. Then closed the door behind me – now off one hinge from Randy’s dramatic entrance – and escorted my nephew to his bed. 

“Traitor,” I called over my shoulder at his trailer. What a little shit, I thought as I chuckled, because I had to respect the balls behind ripping the band-aid all the way off in one messy swipe.

I climbed the stairs to our porch, still getting used to the idea of this new home. We kept my old apartment, too, the position too central to abandon given our shared biz. But this was the home which was really ours. Right by one of our families, right where we wanted to be. It hadn’t taken long for me to rake in enough eddies to make it happen, and I think River wanted to argue about me buying, so we’d settled the conversation at the tattoo parlor an hour later and with proper paperwork the next morning. There wasn’t mine and his anymore, only ours.

I slumped down into one of the chairs on our porch, propped my feet up on the table, still a bit drunk myself. Sounded like the argument inside was dying down, and a few seconds later Joss came out, her motions jerky and agitated. When she saw me sitting there, we stared at each other for a few seconds; her all fired up, me like a gonk in headlights, but she only shook her head and stalked towards her trailer. 

“That could have gone better.”

I turned my gonk expression on River as he joined me on the porch, his arms crossed. I pointed a finger at my husband. “Just want to go on the record and say I did not tell him to tell you guys tonight while he was drunk.” 

River perked a brow at me, his expression stern for about two seconds before he sighed and rubbed his face, and tension I hadn’t fully realized I was carrying uncoiled at the grin he failed to hide.

“Joss is going to kill you both.”

“I know, right?” And I threw back my head and laughed. He closed the space between us, leaned down for a quick peck on the lips. I trapped his neck in my arms.

“You smell like the whole bar,” he muttered. “Let’s go inside.”

I grunted at him. Didn’t let go of his neck when he tried to move, so he scooped me up. I nuzzled his neck as he carried me into the trailer. “Not mad about Randy?”

“Mad? No. Concerned, nervous. Afraid Joss might kill me, too, for saying I agree with the idea, but not mad.”

I nibbled his neck; there really never was an end to the reasons I loved this man. “You should tell Randy that tomorrow before Joss lays into him.”

“She asked me to talk to him first, get more details from him while she cools off a little, thinks about it more, you know? Before they’re in a fight.”

“Good, that’s good,” I mumbled against his neck with a yawn. “I think he wants this for the right reasons, River. Closure for himself, all the way, and wants to help people and keep them from going through what he did. He even talked about working with other victims. And where are you taking me?”

He set me down in our bathroom. “Whole bar,” he repeated, and turned on the shower.

I stripped down, still wobbling a little bit. Didn’t help when River smacked my naked ass, and I almost fell over getting under the water. His chuckle followed me, but for a minute I lost myself under the hot water, letting the night wash free. Felt good, honestly, to finally hash through everything with Randy. I’d been wanting to touch base with him for more than our quick chats since I’d come home, and I’d put it off because I’d wanted to give him the whole explanation. And it was hard, looking back again when looking forward had become my all-consuming focus. Truth was, it hadn’t been so bad thinking about it all again, because everything I’d shared with Randy tonight had led me to now.

To River, stepping into the water with me and sliding his arms around my middle, his body solid against mine. I sighed and leaned into him. 

“We’ll have to figure out how to protect him,” River said quietly, his chin resting on my shoulder. “When things don’t work out.”

In the three and half months I’d been back, we’d tackled about twenty cases and so far only one had ended with a body instead of a reunion. It upset River more than he wanted to admit, but he never once talked about stopping the PI work. We had a better track record than he’d had working alone the year I was gone, because the combination of our contacts and skills had proven extremely effective. Still, even though I knew he didn’t blame himself, not entirely, I understood how much it hurt him when he couldn’t give another family the gift we’d secured saving Randy.

“I don’t think we need to.” I faced him, placing a few gentle kisses on his cheeks, his closed eyes, his forehead. He held me tighter. “I think if anyone understands how close we came to losing him, its Randy. He’s strong. And this will make him stronger. I really believe that.”

“Yeah, me too.” He kissed me, tender and sweet, then crushed me in one of his bear hugs. “Auntie V, huh?”

“Also not my idea.” 

He washed my hair as I told him more about my outing with Randy, which garnered both exasperation and laughter. Had to tell him about catching the beer bottle with my boot of course, and made him promise to remind Randy when they talked in the morning.

“And let the poor guy sleep it off,” I added as we dried off. “I did what I could, but my nephew is going to have one mean ass hangover in the morning.”

“He should have known better to go toe to toe with you. I can’t even keep up when you get going.” 

“We learn from our mistakes.”

He landed a good slap on my ass again as we headed to our connecting bedroom. “Your nephew. Still getting used to hearing it.”

“Yeah well, your nephew – specifically yours in this case – seems to have adjusted quite well, being how he’s already throwing his aunt under the bus.”

“Was a bit dirty of him.”

“He’s a total shit,” I said, no malice in the words. I flopped on the bed and stretched out until my toes curled and I couldn’t help but loose a long, long sigh.

The bed shifted under River’s weight and he pulled me to him, his chest warm against my back. “Thanks, V.”

“Hmm?”

“For being there for him. We’ve had our rough patches, and things are better now, but him and his mom have been rocky since his father died. After everything that happened, I just…” He kissed the back of my neck, then my shoulder, then squeezed me tighter. “I’m glad he trusts you.”

“Mhm…” I scooted my ass back against him, grinning to myself, but all he did was poke my nose.

“Get some sleep, you gonk.”

Sounded like a preem idea actually, and I passed out.

***

I rubbed my face, squinted at the sun coming through the window. Stretched under the sheets, which were tucked tightly around my body since River wasn’t in the bed. The scent of coffee lingered in the air.

“Coffeeeeeee,” I murmured as I rolled over.

“Out of luck, lazy.”

“Come on, I didn’t sleep that late.”

River was where I’d expected him to be if he wasn’t wrapped around me, sitting at the small desk in our bedroom which was situated under the large, one way window. Leaning heavily back in the chair, he tapped a few more keys on the laptop before closing it and facing me. His smile was soft in the early light. “Morning, beautiful.”

I grunted at him, stretching again. He wore only his pajama pants, and I let my eyes wander over his chest, his shoulders, his arms. Those lips. I shifted in the sheets, letting a naked leg poke out from the covers. “You know, I was a bit disappointed you sent me to bed without dessert last night.”

River rose; my eyes followed his movements. “Not the type to take advantage of a drunk woman, even if she is my wife.”

It still sent a little thrill down my spine when he said wife. “I wasn’t drunk, just…pleasantly inebriated.” I rested my foot on his thigh when he settled on the bed. “Randy, on the other hand. You didn’t wake the poor kid up yet, did you?”

“Nope.” River picked up my foot, massaging it. I groaned and flopped my head back in the pillows. “Gonna let him sleep in as late as he wants, then wake up and panic a bit, then give him a few more hours pacing his trailer and wondering when the hammer is going to drop.”

I laughed. “Oooo, vicious.”

“Mhm. Means I have some free time, though.” He lifted my leg, kissing the top of my foot. “What about you?” He kissed my ankle next, his metal hand cradling my calf.

“Depends,” I said on a slow exhale. “This fixer of mine, he keeps me busy saving the world. Probably need to check in, see what he thinks.”

“And if I told you I already did, and he said your day is wide open?” His fingers traced the back of my thigh.

“Guess that makes me a lucky girl.”

River chuckled, the rumbling kind deep in his chest that I adored, as he crawled over into the bed against me, lips finding mine in the most delicious way. 

I pulled back and whined at him. “Ugh, you taste like coffee.”

“Rather me go make you coffee?” 

When I hesitated, made like I was thinking _really_ hard about the choice, he tickled me until I was screaming at him. It ended with him pinning both my arms above my head to stop me from squirming, and suddenly we were holding each other’s gazes, and my heart skipped and stuttered at the pressure he put on my wrists, my body going utterly still. 

That smirk again, and he nuzzled under my ear. “Not even going to fight me?”

Something in his voice…the idea wasn’t fully formed when it jumped into my mind, not the depth of it, not entirely, but I still accessed my HUD to disable all my cyberware to zero. Took away the strength they gave me, the dexterity, the force, leaving myself nothing but my own body, no enhancements, no augments, nothing.

I pushed against his grip as hard as I could. 

His brow furrowed, a flutter of confusion there, but as he watched me bite my bottom lip – probably at the same time he pinged me out of concern something was wrong and realized what I’d done – his expression changed dramatically.

Oh.

Oh _shit_.

I knew a predator when I saw one, and while River had always been far more dominate in the bedroom than me this was…this was something else. This was…fuck. I was in trouble.

He shifted his weight, holding my wrists in only his metal hand now, his other running a warm path down my arm, across my shoulder. Coming around my throat as he used just his thumb to tilt my chin up so he could stare into me. I squirmed a bit, my thighs tightening up against each other, and I barely suppressed a whimper when he ran his thumb over my bottom lip. 

“All mine then,” he said, the heat in his voice making me clench inside, but I felt no fear in letting go of all control, not for him. Not when he was the one taking it from me.

“All yours,” I whispered back, my head already spinning and he was barely touching me, the pressure against my throat feather light as he continued to trace my lips, knowing damn well it drove me nuts.

“My Valerie.”

Oh god, he only used my full name when things were serious. Very serious. The sound of it on his mouth now, like this? I squirmed again as he used his knee to part my legs, giving me a second to catch my breath as he released my neck and ripped the sheet from around me, tossing it to the floor. His metal hand squeezed my wrists tighter, the pressure stopping against the edge of pain, plenty to remind me in my current state I couldn’t have escaped him if I tried.

He watched me for a moment, flesh hand tracing lines along my ribs, between my breasts, my collar bone and naval. His touch was firm and hot, at the same time avoiding my most sensitive places and making me twitch all over. Outer thigh, inner thigh, flattening his warm palm against my stomach, letting me a get a good look at my name on his skin. My head fell back on the pillows, but he immediately caught my chin and made me look at him again.

“Eyes open,” he ordered. “Watching my hand.”

All I could do was nod dumbly, my gaze following his fingers as they pathed down my body one more time, hovering before they ran softly along my slit, then slick against my clit in delicate circles. I wiggled a bit, the touch was so, so light, but he used his weight to keep me pinned. When I glanced up at him, he grunted in disapproval. 

“I said watch me touch you, Valerie.”

This voice, _fucking hell_ , and damned if I didn’t do as I was told. Watching his fingers circle and circle, pinching and flicking now and then when the agonizingly slow pace made me whimper and whine, then settling back into the gradual climb he was forcing on my nerves. He’d never been this deliberate, this measured and unhurried. If I attempted to squirm at all, I was denied, which only made the heat rise and clench I wanted his fingers, wanted him inside me as the tingling started. 

His face pressed into my throat, teeth catching my skin, the added sensation tipping the sluggish orgasm into gear. He bit harder, his thigh still holding mine down, his length pressing against me through his pants, his metal hand tightening more as I writhed under him. 

When the waves receded, my breathing still labored, he abandoned my neck to kiss me, the force of it making me dizzy, his hand suddenly shifting to drive two fingers inside me, stretching against the fresh tightness from the orgasm, his thumb grinding hard and fast against my clit. I groaned into his mouth, but his strength held me down, kept me there as he pulled back.

“River,” I gasped, squirming, oversensitive to the point my mind was scattering. “River, wha—"

And he simply said, “Again.”

 _Fuck_. My hips bucked at the single word, my legs twitching, but he kept going, his fingers moving in and out of me at a vigorous pace, stroking my core, my body tightening around him as the overstimulation crossed into another more violent climb.

My back arched, head dipping backwards, but he responded by slowing down his movements, by moving his fingers so shallow they were barely in me anymore. I snapped my gaze back to his, desperate, and there wasn’t any playfulness in his expression, only a hunger which made my pulse stutter.

“Look at me when you come, Valerie.”

I didn’t really have a choice, because he surged his efforts to punctuate the order, and my body gave him what he wanted from me, what I wanted to give him, the moans rattling out of me making my throat burn as he made me come for him again, without letting me even touch him yet. I pressed my forehead against his, holding his eyes because I couldn’t look away, not when he wanted to drink up what he was doing to me. 

Once I’d come down, my legs twitching against his body, he abruptly released me. I groaned at the sudden retreat, a mix of relief and agony, but then his fingers were on my lips, slick and wet, his thumb dragging against my bottom lip to coax my mouth open. He watched me suck myself from his fingers, watched me with those hungry, hooded eyes, all the while my heartbeat thundering in my ears. 

I barely registered him letting go of my wrists, how he’d grabbed one of the pillows. I heard it thump against the floor, and when I lifted my head to try and see what he was doing, he had the pillow case in his hands, and the next thing I knew he was tying my wrists to be bedframe.

“River…”

He lingered by my hands long enough to take my ring finger in his mouth, his tongue running a slow circle around his name. I watched him do it, sure it was what he wanted and unable to look away, his eyes holding mine as he did. He nibbled on my fingertip as he let it go, his lips pressing against my jaw, then his teeth catching my earlobe.

“Again.”

Oh fuck, fuckfuck _fuck_. I could barely think as I tugged against the pillow case to try and free myself and fight back, but the damn knot wouldn’t give an inch. I clenched my thighs together as he moved down my body, all beauty and power under the morning light saturating his skin. He roughly hooked one knee, spreading my legs, opening me wide for him. 

“Fucking beautiful and all fucking mine.” 

The possession in his voice, something which would have raked against everything about me from anyone else, instead made my entire body quake, violently, and then his mouth was on me. His lips, his tongue, sucking and licking and biting, chasing every part of me. I was still overtaxed, but that didn’t stop my body from answering his demands. 

Then he slipped a cold, metal finger inside me, the sensation entirely new. He’d never done that before, and I loosed a gasping, pitiful moan when he did. He paused, lifting his mouth from me to stare up my flushed body.

“Yes.” Not exactly a question as he moved the metal finger slowly back out of me, making a small circle around my opening before sliding it as deep as he could. 

He was going to _kill me_. “Yes.”

Then he added another finger, the metal smooth and cool and so different from his other hand moments before, and his mouth was attacking me again, and I was screaming instead of moaning, trying to wrap my legs around his head but he wouldn’t let me, anchoring me to the bed, and I cried out his name as he made me come again. 

I was dizzy by the time the third one died down, whimpering as his mouth and fingers left me, vaguely aware of him untying me. My eyes fluttered open as he took my elbow and pulled me up to sit, and he had to fully support my trembling body.

My heart skipped again because that flush in his cheeks, and the predator staring me down…

“Turn around.”

I obeyed, barely able to move myself as he looped the pillow case around the arm he held and pinned it against my back, his body pressing mine into the bed frame. I moaned when he did, at more of his body touching me instead of just his hands and mouth. His other hand snaked up my ribs, pressing my back fully against his chest, his warm palm finding and clamping down around my throat. 

I wasn’t sure when he’d ditched the pajamas, but as he held me, controlled me, his length slid against my slit, hot and hard, his tip bumping up against my overstimulated clit. I wiggled against him, but he tightened the hand on my neck, hard enough to restrict my breathing. He bit my shoulder beside his squeezing hand, and I couldn’t do anything but shudder. I was his, every part of me. Every trembling, aching inch of me. 

“Again.”

“River, _please_ ,” I could barely gasp the words even when he eased the pressure on my throat, his length still sliding along me. 

“Please what, Valerie.”

God, the heat in his voice, the sound of my full name in his mouth. How steady and controlled he was still, even as he rubbed himself against me, even though he was so fucking hard it must have hurt.

“Please, fucking—” My voice hitched again as he squeezed the wrist he had pinned between our bodies, his skin molten against mine.

His lips pressed against my neck beside his hand, his teeth scrapping against my pulse. “Tell me what you want.”

I sucked in another breath, filling my lungs as my free hand which he seemed to have forgotten about grabbed his thigh so hard my nails broke the skin, and, oh god, he _growled_ at me. Just touching him, feeling his thigh muscle quiver under my palm, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Fuck me, River,” I groaned, and the desperate rasping of the words might have been embarrassing if I cared, if there was anything in the world that mattered right then, if he wasn’t the only fucking thing I needed in this god damned life. “Not _again_ without you inside me. Fuck me _now_. _I need you to fuck me now_.”

The sound that erupted from him then, _fucking hell_ , the sound _alone_ almost made me come for him on the spot. He dropped my arm and let go of my throat, both hands claiming my hips, the pain in his grip absolutely, unbelievably delicious. I caught myself on the bed as I fell forward, on my hands and knees a second before he drove himself into me, and I arched my back to let him dive deeper with each brutal, fucking thrust.

It was so loud and raunchy, the sounds coming from both of us, from our bodies slapping together. My arms gave out and my chest pressed against the sheets and my hands clawed at the mattress as he plowed me and I screamed at him to fuck me harder. I think I might have said I’d die if he ever stopped, if he ever stopped fucking me like this, and when he came he damn near roared, and another orgasm crashed through me and around him as I felt him fill me. He clung to my hips, with one, two, three final, jerking thrusts before we both collapsed in a sweaty mess. 

My body went completely limp, my breathing still ragged and out of control when he slipped out of me and propped himself up, pulling me into his lap with arms crushing around me in a hug. My head fell against his chest, the sound of his heart a racing struggle. I pressed my lips against his skin, just breathing him in. 

He could barely breath, but he panted out, “V…you…okay?”

This man. How he could be the fucking animal he was a few second ago, and then immediately back here to this gentle loving light. I couldn’t even bring myself to tease him. “Better than okay.”

I was worthless, my muscles felt completely disconnected, my skin practically numb, but I felt him inspect me. Checking my neck, my hips, my wrists, before slumping into a puddle, still cradling me against his chest. He kissed my temple, his fingers gently running along my cheek as our breathing settled.

When I opened my eyes, he took my hand to his lips, kissing each finger in turn, before lowering his eyes to admire the tattoo on my finger, gently tracing the curved ink. He’d found time for this admiration every day, multiple times a day, since we’d married. The love there, filling his eyes as he looked down at me? It made me melt in an entirely different way.

“That was…” River cleared his throat. When he didn’t finish his statement, I lazily wiggled my eyebrows at him and he laughed. He’d just completely and utterly dominated everything about me, claimed four orgasms from me, and the man was blushing. “You have no idea what you to do me, do you?”

“I have some idea,” I murmured. “Though I might have underestimated the situation I just put myself in.” Concern flickered across his face, then he laughed again when I added, “Much to my delight.”

He kissed me, muttering, “Love you,” against my lips. 

“Love you, too.” 

I pinged my HUD up, resetting my cyberware and jacking my augments to max, which let me force River effortlessly onto his back with a heady grunt of surprise. I wouldn’t have even been able to sit up by myself right then without their help. 

“I’ve got absolutely nothing left in me right now, but I do have another idea for another time…”

I gave him my best shit-eating grin and it was his turn to flop his head into the pillows, and he let out the most pathetic and fucking adorable groan.


End file.
